advertisement


FUNK Firm - HOUDINI

This has been mentioned on the AoS forum by repreentatives of Funk.
I recently tried some dynamat extreme in a similar application. It worked well but it needed more evaluation and tweaks to my arm to accept the increased cartridge weight and playing height. cost about 20p.
For the background story
https://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?69245-STOP-the-TECHIE-1200-Ringing-!
Post 10
I have gone a little further today. I recently purchased a Denon 103r from Mike. He gave me a cover for it that snuggly fits over the body, it was supposed to improve the performance.
I took the cover off and installed some of our energy absober between the cover and my tone arm mounting . Wow the techie is really singing Ive never had it as good.
My theory was to try and absorb the energy from the headshell.
I have since made a new counterweight for my techie arm and will try and find time to repeat my trial and do some measurements.
 
Biggly bigged up up by covid naysayers so it's a thumbs up from the anti 5g mast straight jacket massive here , remember folks don't take the vaccines and come running to me about non authentic Italian recipes.
 
IanmacPFM said:
I recently tried some dynamat extreme in a similar application. It worked well but it needed more evaluation and tweaks to my arm to accept the increased cartridge weight and playing height. cost about 20p.
Click to expand...

The hassle with that, and SO many tweaks is that the change is not achieved in isolation. Dynamat weighs a ton, so no matter what else it may or may not do, it will significantly change the mass at the end of the toneearm (if you consider it part of the tomearm, it is increasing the effective mass). To get around that to some degree would require some clever manipulation of c/b weight (effective mass is really momentum, which is mass x offset squared).

@IanmacPFM - run the same experiment with an aluminium shim of the same mass as the Dynamat, and get back to us.

@Bjork67 - whatever it is, if I drop you my postal address, can you send me some?
 
Blacker space?.... Its the final frontier!

Anyways for a rp3/bronze user £300 is simply too much to justify. The claims seem sensational tho but I'll wait until its widely reviewed by the magazine experts and they sell 10s of 1000s them. That said my £300 may be better spent on a new TT
 
The dynamat I used weighed 0.7gm. I did remove the cover that came with my 103 so weight increase was in the region of 0.6gm
I have an underslung CB weight on my techie which can be tweaked very easily.
The Funk weights around 2gm depending on the version.
 
0.6gm added to the headshell will increase the moment of inertia of that side of the arm by quite a bit just by virtue of how far it is from the pivot. To guesstimate how much, you'd need the headshell weight and it will be simple pro-rata - 6g headshell, 10% increase in inertia. You'd need to add - pure educated guess - 10 times that mass (blutak?) to the c/b to "cancel" the effect, not change the position of the c/b.
 
It strikes me as a product where its impossible to remove any confounding variables and just see what effect the damping has alone irrespective of other parameters.
 
sq225917 said:
It strikes me as a product where its impossible to remove any confounding variables and just see what effect the damping has alone irrespective of other parameters.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it be possible to try it attached to the top of the head shell and compare with it attached between head shell and cartridge - that would show whether the effect was due to absorbing vibrations transmitted/reflected from cartridge/head shell interface (as long as arm height was adjusted to make both positions equivalent in both cases).
 
david ellwood said:
Im not sure if its right (as it sounds ludicrous) but ive heard suggested that this little bit of foam rubber comes in at £300.

Caveat Emptor.
Click to expand...

I am working with Arthur on this.

Not exactly a bit of foam. Technology with twenty parts fitted into a 6mm tiny package and two patents. And it DELIVERS sound you have not heard except for the most expensive TT's.

119239986_10222052538277763_7009219541539591647_o.jpg


I have to go out but I will be back later, I have a few things to say.
 
matodono1 said:
And it DELIVERS sound you have not heard except for the most expensive TT's.
Click to expand...

So of neither use nor benefit on an "expensive TT? How about cheap or expensive tonearms? Cheap or expensive cart's?

Define cheap and "most expensive", and how they sound, please.

I have worked on development of a component 60 x 30 x 30 thou with quite a few more than twenty discrete components, so don't get carried away, please.
 
Vinny said:
There really, rarely is, nothing new under the sun, just reinventions.

REAL cost? How novel are the components? If they are actually unique to the product, given that sale volume is not going to be 1000's, consider tooling costs, and so on........
Click to expand...

Make no mistake we will be selling thousands because this IS DIFFERENT! This delivers fantastic sound, in fact over on A of S and our group The Funk Firm Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1189164577798708
the word of mouth has already started and thus far only about 45 people in the world have heard one. So watch this space this is the next thing in analogue. It's going go big!

People who want to know about cost... We will be seller via dealers so we immediately lose 65% of full retail price of £300 and then there is the money you will save on arms and cartridges. Right now it will make no sense, BUT it will when YOU have heard it for the first time. Then all will LITERALLY be revealed.

118765324_10221978935517740_5591050078026211503_o.jpg


I am amazed on here on how many firm opinions are as the what it is and how much it should cost when none have you have an idea what it does or what it is???

I thought i'd gotten used to how strange this industry is but wonders never cease.

More to come...
 
Vinny said:
So of neither use nor benefit on an "expensive TT? How about cheap or expensive tonearms? Cheap or expensive cart's?

Define cheap and "most expensive", and how they sound, please.

I have worked on development of a component 60 x 30 x 30 thou with quite a few more than twenty discrete components, so don't get carried away, please.
Click to expand...

I have fitted Houdini's to both (Rega RP6, RB303 and Golring 1042) and (SME 10, SME V and Benz Micro LPS). Both decks benefit from having the arm decoupled from the cartridge and both decks are improved. Admittedly the Rega gains more than the SME.

But both are noticeably improved and both are worthwhile upgrades.

Matt.
 
Going out now. Following is an explanation of what Houdini does direct from the Mad Scientist himself!

Quote>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

These are worth reading individually because as we ourselves learn how Houdini works in different systems, we’re finding it really interesting how different people pick up on different aspects of performance improvement of the same product. This contrasts with most other upgrades which have only a small effect and so can be easily described. It’s pretty clear that Houdini sits outside of that.



What can you expect from Houdini?

A universal truth: Every time you change an arm the sound changes. You are hearing the arm’s signature on the cartridge. This happens even to £20,000 arms. Fitting Houdini, the first result is the sound of even these exotic creations is improved.

This brings us to the second truth: Comparing two different arms, both fitted with Houdini, at the very least the arms start to sound very, very similar. This is because Houdini has been correctly designed to decouple the cartridge from the arm, in effect it’s re-creating The Record Cutter in Reverse. You are now left hearing the cartridge and only your chosen cartridge, and what a wealth of new information you will find lurking there.

The arm is now relegated to its original job: To simply and passively carry the cartridge across the record.

We think paying £300 to dispense with all the complex vagaries of arm resonances is a small price to pay. This leaves you only paying for a well-engineered arm that allows the cartridge to track optimally.

Why’s it called Houdini?

We believe that for the first time in 100 years we’ve performed the real trick of “Sonic Escapology”.

We have achieved our stated aim.



In addition: Check out both: Our FB page and also the thread on art of sound:



https://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?70424-The-Marco-boy-main-system-as-of-August-2020/page8&highlight=houdini





Hi Arthur

Now playing the first side of Simon and Garfunkels greatest hits.... OMG

Individual instruments..

Voices like I've never heard them before.

Clarity

Fast punchy clean bass

Headroom (as I call it)

It's like I'm there

And best of all the wife can hear the difference too.

Thank you

Kev



“This arrived today...spent some time earlier fitting it...I can’t say enough about the results, WOW. Well done funk firm.”



Reviewer: (VPI Prime)

“It’s now attached to a Hana ML. My word! To be fair I was expecting an incremental change, but I seem to be getting more of everything while cutting out the VPI Prime. I actually found myself turning the volume up – not because I couldn’t hear properly, but because I could without fear of nasty little artefacts becoming audible.”


Saffire / FXR: “I don't have time to go into it right now, but f*** me that isolator is unbelievable, biggest improvement I've ever heard with any upgrade. It's better EVERYWHERE

I put some seriously complicated stuff on and handled it with joy and shows what the speakers can really do (this guy listens to a lot of Trash. He's using a pair of Curvis with BMR driver and a couple of REL subs. Never been to his room but I'm told it's not small.)

I was expecting improvements but minor, given that I'm running the FXR, but it was huge.

If I'd spent thousands on a new arm I'd have been happy.

What I'd said to Matt...Amazing. Thanks.”


Tarantella / FXR: (This guy has 2,000 albums, Audio Research amplification, Proac Response 2. Felt he wanted to replace the speakers)

“Just had my first quick listen. The Houdini is quite something.; I’m very impressed. Before, I thought the Kontrapunkt B was a bit weedy, but it seems to have grown a pair...

There’s definitely more space for individual instruments to breathe, separation/ depth improved, soundstage better balanced. I don’t think I’ll need new speakers!! Result.”


Acoustic Solid: From an International dealer: “He was kind of in a shock (positive) regarding loss of distortion. Describing the Denon 103 a beast with a very stiff cantilever, it transfers all the resonance to the arm causing massive distortion. He has twice returned "The Magnificent Thad Jones" album to the seller, thinking that the record is faulty, until he realised that it was Denon not being able to play or let's say not compatible with AN arm. A deeper soundstage, more air around instruments and more + tighter bass were his comments. But again, his main shock: The lack of distortion. He says that this device makes the cartridge-arm matching problem..."history".


“Only in the past few days could I say what the diamond profile is doing. Refinement is sublime”


Rega P3: “This is amazing. Really. How is my music now filling all the air in my room. I keep wanting to see what the next record sounds like but can’t – I can’t move to take this one off...”

End Quote>>>>>>>>>>>>


Regards, Matt.
 
Vinny said:
AK actually sent me the patent a few weeks back, although I have only read just a few lines.
It is always possible to get something past the patent office, but not at all easy. So, whatever the details of it, they are very highly likely to be novel in some way or other. Significantly novel? Usefully novel? Audibly novel?
Click to expand...

Arthur is not in the habit of spreading around his intellectual property willy nilly to just anyone. Especially people he does not know. So what are you hoping to achieve???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top